Evanescence
by witchhuntress
Summary: It was supposed to be Naru's birthday...But then...CHAP 2 UPDATED!  In Naru's POV
1. Frost

"_**Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional."**_

**~M. Kathleen Casey~**

* * *

**XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~**

"What are you?" she asked when me and the rest entered the bright hospital room.

It was such an odd query, as if she was checking her sanity. If I was worried about her, I couldn't really remember. There was liberation from restricted breath pervading somewhere.

"I'm human," I smirked, not giving into the mind game. "What about you?"

She had bandages rolled over her head, like a tight turban concealed it, and her beautiful auburn hair was shaved off probably as not a strand was visible. Her arms were covered with casts but not her hands.

_She's probably disappointed for losing her long hair…but…she shouldn't be playing games at this time._

"Hoy, Naru—!" the monk angrily snapped at me at my indifferent answer, but she spoke, interrupting him.

"Me…?" She placed a finger to her chin and stared upwards innocently. "I…I feel like I was a fish in my past life…There's too much water…"

"Fish…?" the monk uttered loudly in shock and gawked at her as if she really went mental.

She looked at his astonished face in wonder as if telling him how obvious it was. Matsuzaki-san and Hara-san shed tears uncharacteristically all of a sudden.

"Why…are you crying…?" she questioned and then blinked, as if realizing something as she locked her eyes with the priestess, the monk, the medium, the priest, the scholar, the diviner, and then to me. "Do…I know all of you?"

Gasping sobs escaped from the priestess and the medium. The rest just went pale.

"Mai-san…" the young priest mumbled sadly.

"For this to happen so suddenly…" Yasuhara shook his head in disbelief.

"Mai…" The monk gazed at her anxiously.

It was expected; I knew that. She had hit her head very hard after all. The doctor already warned about possible amnesia when she comes into consciousness.

I sighed. _She'll remember soon._

"I'm Kazuya Shibuya," I supplied as-a-matter-of-factly (and Mai turned to me curiously), "your boss _**and**_ the person you said you _**'love the most in the entire universe.'**_ "

The rest gaped at me. At dire circumstances like this, they still never changed; Lin was exempted (since he just sported his usual grim countenance).

"I see." Mai smiled incomprehensibly, and I frowned.

It's also expected that I'd be misunderstood, and what I said would be clearly ineffective.

* * *

September 19.

I had marked that day on the big calendar in my room. To me, it's a very important day that I shouldn't miss out.

It's the Greatest Narcissist's birthday after all.

I had happily ridden my silver motor scooter to the supermarket at Shibuya early in the morning. I went to Ayako's house after to bake the cake I'd been practicing the past few weeks. Since I have another mock exam at my Juku, I'd decided to leave the baked product at Ayako's house for the meantime.

It was fairly cloudy, but the weather seemed to go along with me. I beamed widely to myself at a store's glass window's surface. The professor at my Juku just told me of the improvements in my mock exam results; he said that with the rapid pace my learning has taken, it's not impossible that I would be able to enter T-U.

_I've worked hard after all and promised Obaa-san too._

Obaa-san was my foster grandparent. She had adopted me during the time that Naru was in England.

Anyway, I imagined Naru frowning, and I couldn't help but chuckle.

_A credit for the narcissist too… _

I giggled to myself. Indeed, Naru had been quite helpful lately. _Breaking the barriers, hm?_

I imagined him smirking when he'd hear the news, and I grinned. _He still has a long way though._

I drove cheerfully towards Ayako's house. She had an old traditional Japanese abode. A towering gate and high walls covered her family's manor. Shading anyone who'd walk on the sidewalk, tiled roofs hung above the walls and gate.

I rang the gate's bell and heard Ayako speak through the device gruffly.

"Who's there?"

I snickered at her odd inquiry. "Knock, knock."

"Mai!" Ayako shrieked. "I thought you were Takigawa!"

"Ehhh, Bou-san's coming?" I teased, and if not for the fact that I couldn't see her, I would have known if she's flushing or not.

"H-he's not coming till noon!"

I laughed heartily. The gate opened and revealed a truly red Ayako.

"Stop the teasing," she warned, and I raised my arms in surrender.

"Hai, hai, your highness," I quipped and entered before she catches me chuckling again.

Ayako's home was really bright. The wallpapers covering the walls were in lemon yellow, and the ceilings were painted in the lightest shade of green.

Without further ado, we proceeded to the kitchen where, on a counter, a box filled with Naru's cake sat.

"Do you think I can win against Masako's gift to Naru with this?" I inquired to Ayako as I gestured at my home-made cake.

Ayako shrugged. "Who knows?" And then she smirked at me. "Are you feeling insecure?"

I loured. "Can you please not answer my question with a question?"

Ayako smiled and ruffled my hair━making me squeak. "He'll surely like it."

I had bought a black box and silver ribbons for the cake. Somehow, I just thought that the colors would suit him. I beamed at my precious gift.

"Ahh, you're blooming again." Ayako propped her elbow on the counter and rested her chin on her backhand.

"Is it a bad thing?" I quirked an eyebrow, and she shook her head.

"Not really," she responded. "I think it suits you well. Although, what he sees in you is beyond me."

I fleered, "What Bou-san sees in you is also beyond me."

A nerve popped. "You minx!"

I tittered and ran away while carefully holding the boxed cake in my hands as she chased me in her heels. After shouting my gratitude, I slipped on my silver motor scooter and started the engine after securing my helmet on my head.

"I'll see you at the office, Ayako!" I yelled and zoomed away.

A grin was plastered to my face, and I sang against the breeze. I was excited to see Naru's reaction at my home-made gift.

The fall wind swept my hair and hummed with me as I sang some random song that popped in my head. I glanced occasionally at the sky and spotted some enormous clouds here and there but none so dark so far.

I gripped the handlebars tightly in determination. _Nothing to worry, Mai. _

I turned a corner towards a long bridge.

Drips of rain started to pour down from the sky. I assured myself that it wouldn't be that strong. I ignored the droplets on my skin and continued my driving. After all, the sun was still up…

Suddenly, without explaining how it happened, it rained so hard that I, who had no protection on, involuntarily raised my hands to my head in great bewilderment.

The sky was still bright…!

_Ah…a foxes' wedding?_

I grinned and then grimaced.

My motor and I almost staggered sideways, but luckily I was able to hold onto the handlebars before anything else happened. But then, I felt something fall behind me and I turned around only to see the box, where Naru's cake was, open, and its content splattered on the road.

"Ah, NO!" I shouted angrily trying to reach in a very late reaction at the already spilt cake. _WHY MUST THE BASKET BE BEHIND ME?_

I immediately cursed the structural designer of my vehicle.

A deafening honk reverberated, and instantly whirling around, I swerved my motor scooter to avoid a triple liner truck, which also went sideways to evade me.

Brakes and tires squealed simultaneously in the downpour. I lost control of my motor scooter, and its wheels slipped away. I clutched the brakes hard, and in result, I was thrown headfirst to a freight of the truck; my arms which tried to protect my head━even though I had my helmet━from the impact were automatically useless.

I was knocked out before I could check for broken bones.

* * *

**XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~**

After the surgery, she had gone into a medicine-induced sleep. She had been asleep for an entire week before waking up yesterday. Within the week, I had tried going back to work, but the others kept on bugging me━telling me off to visit her. After riposting that Mai needed her rest, they went begrudgingly. However, when they scrammed, I found myself unable to concentrate.

There was something in the office that I could not decipher. Something…quiet. I had always known that it was Mai who drew those people inside. It was her that pulls them back oftentimes to SPR headquarters.

I…somehow didn't mind that. Her absence though…for some reason…seemed so eerie. It was a first to feel this way. I had never sought for anyone's presence.

"_What are you?"_

"_I feel like I was a fish in my past life…"_

I remembered her saying those words yesterday. It was very silly and would have been thought of as a joke if she didn't say it so calmly. The doctor had already said it wasn't something odd. She fell into the river after being thrown away from the impact, so having a sense of reality at the moment was improbable. It could be…a fixable current distortion of her mind━a disorientation caused by a possible unconscious recollection of where she fell.

I sighed.

I wasn't supposed to be feeling uneasy as I sauntered towards the corner where Mai's room should be. She's still alive, and that was indeed a "miracle" of sorts. Also, no serious spinal or cranial injury happened. She still appeared her usual self except for the bandages on her head, the casts on her arms, and the hospital clothing she now wears.

However, I could not shake off something. Some uncertainty.

I frowned as I entered her room. She was sitting gleefully on the wide windowsill and smiling broadly at something outside the window. Her turban-like bandages had already been taken, and I noticed that her hair was not shaved off as I thought it was; it was only cut off unevenly shorter, and the length was slightly similar to the former hairstyle she had more than a year ago.

She laughed suddenly. What she sees that makes her happy was beyond me.

_When she remembers, I'll make sure to tell her off from driving recklessly._

I waited for her to notice me standing before the door, yet she never faced me. It was her tendency to sense me anywhere and notice me wherever. For some reason, that tendency right now had been shut off.

I suspired.

"Mai," I called loudly and glared at her when she finally glanced at me.

She blinked her chocolate brown eyes as if seeing an unbelievable creature.

I scowled. "How long are you going to stare at things down there?"

She peered at me as if thunderstruck. "Who are you?"

For the first time, I blinked at her too...

_**Because she was supposed to remember.**_

Not the very past but at least yesterday.

Because Mai, for the long time I'd observed her, had a very good memory.

The door to her hospital room opened wide, and in came the doctor. He was shorter than me and had white hair. He adjusted his glasses and watched Mai pitifully.

"Ah, Shibuya-san, I have a very important matter to discuss," the old man said solemnly. He gazed at Mai, who stared back innocently. "As you probably noticed by now, I'm very sorry to say that Taniyama-san has a rare case of amnesia."

"What do you mean?" I queried, narrowing my eyes, but I was inwardly very astounded for the very first time.

"She has both anterograde and retrograde amnesia," the doctor replied forlornly. "I'm sad to say that she would never get her memories back or even create new ones."

**XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~**


	2. Reset

**A/N:** This chap is dedicated to Chrysanthia-Sunshine. ^^ Sorry for the tardiness, and thank you for your patience. XD

* * *

**Review**

"Ah, Shibuya-san, I have a very important matter to discuss," the old man said solemnly. He gazed at Mai, who stared back innocently. "As you probably noticed by now, I'm very sorry to say that Taniyama-san has a rare case of amnesia."

"What do you mean?" I queried, narrowing my eyes, but I was inwardly very astonished for the very first time.

"She has both anterograde and retrograde amnesia," the doctor replied forlornly. "I'm sad to say that she would never get her memories back or even create new ones."

**End of Review**

* * *

**XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~**

Earlier that day, the priestess barged in my office. Her eyes were uncharacteristically puffy.

"What is it?" I frowned. I was quite sure I'd locked my territory.

She didn't reply but just shrugged. Then, digging her hand in her orange snakeskin bag, she fished out some plastic and extended her hand to me.

Nonchalantly, I raised an eyebrow without looking at what she's handing over. "What is that for?"

Grimly, she grunted, "It was left behind on the bridge."

I knitted my brow. _Why would she give me something like this? To see if I'll show annoying feelings?_

I narrowed my eyes. "I have no need for━"

"It's a part of Mai's birthday gift to you!" Her lips quivered, and she seemed more inclined to sob than to shout...

Realizing, I stared at her. _Birthday gift? For me...?_

Without asking, she explained the content in the Ziploc bag she was grasping.

"She baked a cake for you! She's been practicing for weeks! She was going to give it to you, yet she wasn't able to! The cake she worked hard for was destroyed and washed away with the rain on the bridge! These box and ribbons were the only things presentable!"

With a glare, she slammed it down on my desk and left. Sighing, I leaned back on my obsidian swiveling chair.

I closed my eyes and pondered, _So that's what it was...That was why she kept on asking if I don't mind sweet stuff..._

I wouldn't be surprised if the cake was the reason she got into an accident...

However, I oddly hoped it wasn't the case, but her idiocy could be quite predictable...

I ran a hand through my hair. _Why does she care so much even about such occasions? Just like Gene..._

I loured and glanced at the priestess's parcel.

_Idiot...why do you have to care so much? I'd told you very well not to. I don't need that kind of annoying sentiment._

I soughed.

Still, she wouldn't be Mai if she stopped her persistence.

* * *

I was bewildered, yes. Though, I did not bother for exaggerations such as jaw dropping, eyes bulging, and knees falling.

He turned to her. "Taniyama-san?"

She peered at him. "Doctor...can I go home now? What day is it? I have to go to my job and then to school."

The old man hesitated and feigned a smile. "Ah...I'll just need you to answer a few questions before I can let you go. Taniyama-san, how old are you?"

She blinked and mused, "I'm fifteen."

I ogled at her as the doctor scribbled on his clipboard.

"I see. Taniyama-san, what is my name?"

She knitted her eyebrows and smiled angelically. "Have you forgotten your name, doctor?"

The man scratched his head with a smile himself. "Haha! You can say that, Taniyama-san."

She shook her head and was apologetic. "Sorry. I can't help you. I don't know what your name is."

He scribbled on his clipboard again before saying, "Very well, Taniyama-san, please wait here. You will be told when you will be discharged later."

She nodded obediently and glimpsed at me. "Umm...are you lost?"

"No..."

She squinted her eyes, and I had expected for her to laugh and admit it was all a joke and that the doctor himself was just cooperating with her farce. But nothing happened except that she shrugged and examined the sky outside the window again.

"Shibuya-san," the doctor ushered, "let's go to my office to discuss."

I jounced my head and followed him, and I observed that, unlike before, Mai's eyes didn't follow me anymore.

* * *

**XDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~**

His territory was a well-lit whitewashed room. He sat on a brown leather chair and offered me a seat before his desk. Shrugging, I told him I preferred to stand.

The nameplate on his desk's surface read: Kyousuke Iwasaki.

Without further ado, the man began, "Thirty minutes."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Thirty minutes?"

"That's how long she can retain new information."

I was quiet, but it all seemed surreal to me.

"The nurses and I had been visiting her today at intervals to get this specific datum. It seems like she's stuck in her fifteen-year-old self."

"I understand the situation," I slowly spoke.

There was quiescence for a moment.

"For historical background, though," the doctor carried on while writing something on his clipboard again and then looking at me formally, "how long have you known Taniyama-san, Shibuya-san?"

"Two years and five months."

"Almost three years…" The doctor wrote on the clipboard and glimpsed at me again. "She is eighteen; is that correct?"

"Yes," I replied tersely.

"Although it is still inconclusive," the doctor speculated, "for now, we know that Taniyama-san could not remember anything from three years prior to this day."

"This condition is permanent?"

The doctor bobbed desolately. "The damages in her brain were severe although she may not look like it."

"I see…"_ An endless loop._

"Are you her boyfriend?" the man queried.

"You could say that," I supplied readily to halt further relationship questions, and he just sighed at me. I knew pity when I saw one. "What parts of her brain took the damage?"

He hesitated, so I added, "I have studied the brain, so you do not have to hold back."

Blinking, he nodded.

"Her basal forebrain and hippocampus were harmed," the doctor elucidated and gave me her MRI results. "Cholinergic innervation was disrupted."

_That's why it caused global amnesia..._

I kept my silence and scrutinized the black-gray-white image of her convoluted matter.

"It is a good thing that she's alive," the doctor tried to be positive, "yet it is painful and tragic that, at her young age, she is trapped in oblivion forever."

"When will she be discharged?" _He's quite empathic for a doctor._

"After a few more days. We'll be doing other tests on her, so..."

"I see."

I just inclined my head at him as I excused myself and strode off.

* * *

"Ne, Naru," Mai called while sitting on the left side of my mahogany desk.

Sitting on my office chair across her and reading a new Parapsychology material Madoka had just sent to me, I raised an eyebrow.

"Your birthday is on September 19, right?" she asked, and I just continued arching my brow. "Well…shall I tell you what day it is?"

I narrowed my eyes at her, and she just eyed me with the usual jubilant smile, which makes her look like a child who wants to share a new discovery.

I sighed. _It won't hurt anyway…_

"What day is it then?" I pinched the bridge of my nose and placed the thesis down on my lap. She'd always been a random person when it comes to striking conversations inside my office.

"It's a holiday."

I frowned and asked what she'd been wanting me to ask. "What holiday?"

"It's Narcissism Awareness Day~~"

I squinted my eyes at her. "You just made that up."

"Nooope."

I soughed. "What are you on about?"

"Are you free that day?" Her cheeks reddened, and she avoided my eyes. "Let's go somewhere and celebrate it."

"Being aware of the day's occasion isn't enough?"

She pouted. "Stop with the wordplay! Honestly!"

I shrugged and smirked. "Where do you want to go then?"

Her cheeks turned a darker shade. "I-I don't know! You decide!"

She hmph-ed, and I rolled my eyes. She didn't have to be so roundabout just to ask me for a date, but her shyness was always random too.

"Did you just roll your eyes to me?" She gaped at me in disbelief.

"No. That was eye exercise."

"Tsk. Liar."

Lifting a corner of my mouth, I informed, "I'll call you when and where we'll meet that day then."

Still blushing, she good-naturedly nodded and alternately swung her legs up and down and then halted━probably noticing that she's wearing a skirt and that I'm in front of her.

"Y-you didn't look, right?"

I leered. "Didn't look where?"

"Nothing!" Crimson-cheeked, she deflected her head.

Amused, I poised my reading material before me and pretended to read again.

_I guess I should take her to that amusement park she'd been staring at in some magazine before..._

* * *

She wasn't sitting on the window ledge anymore. Instead, she sat on the edge of her ivory hospital bed near the window. Without waiting for her to notice me, I sat beside her.

She flinched and goggled at me, and I gazed obliquely at her.

"W-who━?"

"I'm Kazuya Shibuya, your boss," I intercepted.

She blinked. "Boss? You're not my bo━"

"You can't remember because of the accident, but you're not fifteen years old; you're already eighteen. We met a few months before you turned sixteen. You've been working under me ever since."

She wrinkled her brow. "H-how━?"

I leaned and osculated her. Her soft lips froze at the contact, so I didn't linger and pulled apart. If the accident didn't happen, she would have responded cooperatively and held me closer with her hands on my nape.

On the contrary, the current her paled at me, and I concluded that she most likely thought I stole her first kiss━add to that fact that I still appeared a stranger to her.

_She'll forget it thirty minutes later..._

I smirked._ I can kiss her all day, but she won't remember at all tomorrow._

She was still dumbstruck as my smirk vanished, and I told her expressionlessly, "We started seeing each other a few months after your 18th birthday."

She opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Her cheeks pinkened then.

_What is this feeling?_ I was never an expert of identifying or eliciting emotions, so I couldn't explicate some sort of twitchiness in me.

_Only you knew…what emotions…what sides of me exist…_

I had no idea, so I just checked the presence of her memories in my brain━memories that, now, I alone could remember. Inevitably, the next days would consist of incessant reiteration, and nobody could do it better than me.

Troublesome? Annoying? Peculiarly, I didn't even think it would be such.

Involuntarily, I bowed my head, and I was perplexed at why I suddenly couldn't look at her.

But I soon understood.

I sighed and muttered, "I should have fetched you...rather than waited for you to come to me."

The accident wouldn't have occurred if I acted differently. If I had seen what would happen, I would have prevented it, but my psychometry didn't even warn me.

_Pathetic. When did I depend on it? Why am I blaming━?_

Inexplicably, that thought caused my body to go rigid and something wet to fall down my cheeks. Subsequently, I put a hand to my face, wiped off a droplet in voiceless query, and discovered that a tear had escaped from my eyes...

A hand reached out and cupped my left cheek, and I looked up at a puzzled Mai; it seemed like she didn't plan to touch me but just instinctively did. When she saw my face, concern flashed in her eyes, and it appeared as though she was familiar with me.

_Like she cares for me...A stranger to her._

If her memories were intact, she would have known that was the first time I cried before her...before anyone...ever since I was born.

The warmth of her hand was like a trigger; tears spilled unstoppably in succession ever since. My expression must have stilled in shock, for her worried gander didn't disappear. Next, becoming erubescent, she motioned to jerk her hand away, but I held it to my face. The shock had worn off, and it was replaced with a deadpan countenance.

Reluctantly, she said awkwardly, "I-I'm sorry. I-I━"

"Just stay still like this."

"O-o-okay." She bit her lip, and I closed my eyes.

_She'll forget I cried anyway._

At that instance, I finally became aware what feeling made something in me twinge.

**XDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXDXD~nya~**

* * *

**A/N: After writing this, I saw the new avatar I made and felt guilty. Mai's smiling face just made me feel so cruel for doing this to her. T_T  
**


End file.
